Reading Comprehension: “Weird English Words”

Hello!

Ready to read in English? The following article is published by Focus Magazine, a magazine about technology and the future. But the article we will be reading today is about weird words!

Weird Words – Modern English words with odd origins.

Alcohol

From the Arabic word al-kuhul – “al” is the “the” and “kuhul” is the refined antimony powder used to paint the eyelids. In ancient Mesopotamia, this powder was known as guhlu.

Europeans later started using “alcohol” for other powders and liquids that were also obtained through refinment or distillation. People thus talked about the “alcohol of wine” – its distilled essence – and eventually this sense took over.

Partridge

A borrowed word that comes from Greek (via Latin and French). If you replace the P in the first part of the word with an F, you get a four-letter native English word that is etymologically related. The Greeks presumably gave the bird this name because of the loud whirring sound it makes when suddenly flushed out.

Resent

In the 17th century, this verb had a meaning directly opposite to the way we understand it today, and could be used in the sense of “appreciate” or “feel grateful for”.

In 1677, for instance, mathematician and theologian Isaac Barrow (Newton’s teacher in Cambridge), wrote in a sermon: “Should we not be monstrously ungrateful if we did not deeply resent such kindness?”

Vocabulary

Antimony – a silvery-white metal that breaks easily and that is used especially in alloys.

Thus – in this way or manner : like this.

Etymologically – an explanation of where a word came from : the history of a word.

Flushed out -to scare birds or animals out of their natural habitat with the intention of shooting them.

Whirring – the sound made by something that is spinning very fast.

Sermon – a speech about a moral or religious subject that is usually given by a religious leader, but not always.

Three new words and their origins! Do you know of a word that has an intersting origin?